MUMBAI,
May 12
Export
potential of the Indian system of medicines such as Ayurveda and Siddha
is although very high, issues such as standardisation of products and
lack of relevance to current therapy areas put its share in the $62-billlion
market to just 0.3 per cent.
The
US and western Europe compise a significant portion (75 per cent) of
the global herbal market followed by China at three per cent. “During
the year 2002, if one compared the export of herbal drugs between India
and China, India is way behind at Rs 874.1 crore, while China exported
herbal drugs worth Rs 9,600 crore,” said Dr.Gangadharan, Vice-President(Technical),
Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, at a meet organised by the Export-Import Bank
of India on ‘Exporting Healthcare – A Roadmap and a Compendium".
The
traditional medicine market in India is dominated by Ayurveda which
comprises about 84 percent, homeopathy consists of 14 per cent, while
Unani and Siddha account for the remaining.
However,
the industry is highly unorganised, especially the Ayurvedic and Siddha
industries.
Industry
experts are of the opinion that the Indian traditional medicine industry
should look at standardising the products batch wise, invest in research
and development and use modern diagonstic gadgets for documentation
and communication among others.
Dr
Muhammed Majeed, Managing Director, SAMI Labs said,”
The Indian system of medicine has a wealth of knowledge dating back
to almost 5,000 years, but the government and industry does not seem
to have manpower, know-how or resources to tackle the ever-increasing
market”.
The
global herbal market is expected to grow to $5 trillion by the year
2050 with the current demand growing at a rate of 10-15 per cent per
annum. Knowledge management and research, therefore become areas of
focus.
“The research projects must be based on relevant therapy areas
keeping in mind the global trends for Indian companies to succeed in
exporting traditional medicine,” said Dr. Narendra S. Bhatt, ayurvedic
consultant and member of the governing body of Central Council for Research
in Ayurveda and Siddha, Government of India.